This invention pertains to a method of preparing unsymmetrical halogen-substituted diacyl peroxides and in particular to the preparation of unsymmetrical bromo-or chloro- substituted diacyl peroxides.
Unsymmetrical halogen substituted diacyl peroxides have been prepared by adding approximately equimolar quantities of two dissimilar acyl chlorides dissolved in an inert solvent to an excess of aqueous sodium peroxide solution. However, this procedure affords a mixture of peroxides of which the desired unsymmetrical peroxide constitutes a much smaller percentage than is obtained by the process of this invention. The other components of such a procedure are the symmetrical halogen substituted diacyl peroxide and the unhalogenated symmetrical diacyl peroxide. This reaction is delineated in the equation below: ##EQU1## where a, b and c represent quantities which vary according to the reactivities of the starting acyl halides; and R is a long chain alkyl radical.
It is an object of this invention to provide a means for obtaining a high yield of unsymmetrical diacyl peroxides with a substantial reduction in contamination from symmetrical diacyl peroxides of either the halogen substituted or non-halogen substituted types:
It is another object of this invention to provide unsymmetrical halogenated acyl peroxides having about 12 to 18 carbon atoms on each side of the molecule.
Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the specification.